Lego is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) that accompany an array of gears, figurines called minifigures, and various other parts. Its pieces can be assembled and connected in many ways to construct objects, including vehicles, buildings, and working robots. Assembled Lego models can be taken apart, and their pieces can be reused to create new constructions.
This article lists notable events and releases in the history of the Lego Group.
Lego Adventurers was a Lego theme based on an early 20th century 'explorer' concept. It centred around the main character named Johnny Thunder and a team of explorers who go on adventures. Unlike other Lego themes, which take place in a fictional "Lego Universe", most of the Adventurers sets took places in real-world locations, such as Egypt, the Amazon rainforest, the Himalayas, India, and China. The only fictional sub-theme took place on an island where prehistoric creatures still lived. The theme was first introduced in 1998. The product line was discontinued in 2003 and replaced with the Lego Pharaoh's Quest theme in 2011.
Lego Island is a Lego-themed open world action-adventure game developed and published by Mindscape. It was released for Windows on September 26, 1997, as the second Lego video game overall and the first one outside Japan. In the "proto-open world" game, players explore the eponymous island as one of five unique minifigure characters, and can build vehicles and complete side quests; the game's main story involves Pepper Roni, a pizza delivery boy, and his efforts to stop an escaped prisoner known as the Brickster from destroying the island.
Lego Racers is a 1999 Lego-themed kart racing video game developed by High Voltage Software and published by Lego Media for Microsoft Windows, followed by console ports to Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. Set in the fictional "Legoland" universe, the single-player mode follows various minifigure characters competing in a racing competition created by a fictional racing champion called Rocket Racer.
Lego Harry Potter is a Lego theme based on the film series of the same name and the eponymous novels by British author J. K. Rowling. It is licensed from Warner Bros. Lego models of important scenes, vehicles and characters were made for the first six films and all of the published books. The first sets appeared in 2001, to coincide with the release of the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Subsequent sets were released alongside the new films, until Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The line then went dormant for three years, with sets being released in 2010 and 2011. In 2018, it was announced that more sets based on the Harry Potter franchise would be released, including new sets based on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and its sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Lego Creator is a sandbox game for Microsoft Windows, which involves building with virtual Lego elements. The game has no missions, objectives, challenges, or money constraints. The game was released on 11 November 1998.
Lego City is a theme under which Lego building sets are released based on city life, with the models depicting city and emergency services, airport, train, construction, and civilian services. It evolved from LEGOLAND Town as one of the three original themes that Lego produced upon its launch of the Lego minifigure in 1978 along with Castle and Space, with each of the three themes representing the 'Past' (Castle), 'Present' (Town) and 'Future' (Space). The Town brand was briefly replaced with Lego World City in 2003 and 2004 before it was simply rebranded as Lego City in 2005.
Lego Sports was a Lego theme that was launched in 2000 and discontinued in 2007. The theme focused on a variety of sports-themed toy sets, including football, basketball and hockey.
Lego Creator is a Lego theme for generic models. Creator sets have few specialized bricks to create buildings, creatures, vehicles, and robots. Some sets featured instructions for three different possible builds from the bricks included and most sets in recent years have used the 3-in-1 label. Creator is also a parent theme to Lego Icons, a Lego subtheme for adolescents and adults featuring advanced building techniques and large piece counts, mostly known for Modular Buildings and detailed vehicles. Creator also has had several other subthemes such as X-Pods and mosaics.
Lego Toy Story is a Lego theme based on the Disney·Pixar's Toy Story film franchise. The first four sets were released on December 30, 2009, with an additional two sets being released on January 4, 2010. In May 2010, five Lego and four Duplo sets were released under the Toy Story 3 sub-theme. The original theme was discontinued in 2011. For the release of Toy Story 4 there was one Duplo set based on the third film and 6 Lego sets based on the fourth film. These sets were released in March and in April 2019 this time under the Juniors line. The minifigures in the sets were also now redesigned. The revival theme was discontinued in 2021.
Lego Minifigures are a 2010 Lego theme based on a set of collectible Lego minifigures. Each figure is an original character with new clothing and facial designs, and many contain previously unseen accessories. Each series usually contains 16 different minifigures; however, some series contain as few as 9 minifigures, while others contain up to 22. Since 2021, the number of different minifigures for a series is set to 12. In 2023, the Disney 100-anniversary series came out, bringing the total number of figures to 18, although it was once again reduced to 12 with the second Marvel series. This series also introduced paper boxes, instead of the plastic bags, making it no longer possible to feel up the pieces for each figure.
Lego Friends is a product range of Lego construction toys designed primarily for girls that was launched in 2012. It introduced "mini-doll" figures, which are about the same size as traditional Lego minifigures but are more detailed and realistic. The original cast consisted of Andrea, Olivia, Stephanie, Mia and Emma. The theme was relaunched in January 2023 to focus on a more diverse cast of characters: Aliya, Nova, Zac, Liann, Paisley, Leo, Autumn and Olly.
Lego Legends of Chima was a Lego theme that was introduced in 2013 and discontinued in 2015. The product line was based on the storyline of Legends of Chima, a 3D animated television series, which was produced to coincide with the Lego theme. The storyline was set in the fictional realm of "Chima", a fantasy world inhabited by various warring tribes of anthropomorphic animals that battle to collect a substance called "Chi". Alongside the television series and several shorts based on Lego Legends of Chima. The theme also produced a range of associated media, including theme park attractions, video games, and publications.
Lego Dimensions is a Lego-themed action-adventure platform crossover video game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Wii U. It follows the toys-to-life format, in that the player has Lego figures and a toy pad that can be played within the game itself where it features characters and environments from over 30 different franchises. The Starter Pack, containing the game, the USB toy pad, and three minifigures, was released in September 2015, while additional level packs and characters were released over the following two years.
Nexo Knights is a 3D animated television series that aired on Cartoon Network and premiered in 2015. It was produced by the Lego Group to coincide with the Lego theme of the same name. The series is based on a fantasy castle concept. Four seasons were produced for a total of 40 episodes. The fourth season finished airing in 2017. In 2018, the Lego Group discontinued the Nexo Knights theme, which also resulted in the cancellation of the series.
Lego Trolls World Tour was a Lego theme based on the film of the same name created by Thomas Dam. It is licensed by Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation. The theme was introduced in January 2020 and was discontinued by the end of July 2021.
Lego Legacy: Heroes Unboxed is a Lego-themed turn-based strategy game developed and published by Gameloft. It was released on Apple's App Store and Google Play as a free downloadable game. The game centres on a fictional location named Piptown, which serves as the central game hub for accessing the challenges, campaigns, events, shop, guilds, and arena.
Lego Monster Fighters was a Lego theme based on Universal Studios Monsters from the horror fiction genre. The Monster Fighters fight against the Lord Vampyre's monsters while collecting the moonstones. The story takes place in the Monster Realm and it's similar to The Monster Squad film. The theme was first introduced in May 2012. It was eventually discontinued by the end of December 2014. The theme also produced a range of associated media, including theme park attractions, several shorts, video game, app and publications.
Lego Fusion was a Lego theme that combined standard Lego bricks with a mobile app that was designed to interact and communicate with the build models according to the principle of augmented reality. The theme was first introduced on 1 August 2014 and exclusively in North America. It was eventually discontinued by the end of July 2015.
